`Hospital heads: We’re ready for Y2K`

By Joe Pinchot
Herald Staff Writer

Mercer County hospitals have been preparing for at least two years for the year 2000 and the potential computer problems of this year passing into the next.

And while no problems are expected, hospital administrators believe they will be ready to handle any situation.

On Dec. 31, the hospitals won’t have an unusual number of doctors, nurses and other medical professionals on hand, but administrators, technicians and troubleshooters will be searching for problems and reacting to any that arise, administrators said.

Command centers will be set up at Sharon Regional Health System and UPMC Horizon hospitals in Farrell and Greenville to field calls on the hospitals’ operations and assess and respond to problems.

United Community Hospital, Pine Township, will have department heads working that night. Shortly after midnight Saturday morning, computers and equipment with computer components will be tested. Each computer and piece of equipment has already been assessed, tested and upgraded or replaced, administrators said.

“We have been very fortunate in that we have been upgrading our computer system all along so we didn’t have anything really old,” said Kirsten Swanson, SRHS assistant vice president and chairwoman of the Y2K task force.

Connie Mayle, UPMC Horizon vice president of administrative services, said much of its Y2K remediation efforts concerned software.

United Community bought new heart monitors for nursing units, operating rooms, intensive care units and cardiac rehabilitation to ensure Y2K compliance, administrator Robert Turner said on the hospital’s Web site. Nursing stations were remodeled to house the new equipment.

Agencies and companies outside of a hospital’s control, such as utility companies and supply vendors, were quizzed on their Y2K preparedness.

The hospitals have contingency plans set should essential resources such as communication, utilities or computer systems fail. UPMC, which started planning at the end of 1996, went so far as to make maps to all doctor’s houses and identify “runners” to contact doctors if they cannot be reached through normal methods, Ms. Mayle said.

The hospitals also have reviewed their emergency plans and said they will implement them if they have to.

UPMC has established message boards for people to call and check on the hospital’s status. The Greenville number is 588-4337, and the Farrell number is 981-1858. Additional information on United Community’s preparations is available on the Internet at www.uchpa.org

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